Eva Marie Saint, who won an Oscar for her first film and turned down a string of studio contracts afterward, has died at 102. She announced her pregnancy mid-acceptance speech in 1955 and went on to outlast most of her era, working into her 90s.
— via PBS NewsHour, Bob Thomas, Associated Press
Edwidge Danticat picks up her fourth National Book Award nod, going head-to-head with first-timer Morgan Thomas in fiction. The nonfiction side ranges just as wide, from the prison system's ties to music to what it means to parent while queer.
— via NPR, Andrew Limbong
The Supreme Court's new term opens Monday with major cases on religion, guns and climate change already lined up. The emergency docket, meanwhile, shows no sign of slowing down.
— via NPR, Nina Totenberg
Texas's education commissioner kept pushing Alpha School's AI program into public classrooms even after the state board rejected the company's charter bid 10 to 3. Emails show he personally connected Alpha with Houston's superintendent and at least nine other districts, three of which launched pilots, while his agency denies any formal partnership.
— via ProPublica, Lexi Churchill
Only 9% of Americans qualify as "Mobilizers," highly active across politics, civics, news and religion, and that share barely budges between cities, suburbs and rural areas. Suburbanites lean toward volunteering over politics, while urban residents are more likely to just watch the news from the sidelines.
— via Pew Research, Beshay Sakla
Sulfur prices are climbing enough to worry farmers, oil supplies are tightening, and somehow Lego bricks have become a yardstick for measuring blockbuster movies. Three unrelated pressure points, one uneasy week in commodities and culture.
— via NPR, Cooper Katz McKim
